Iranian, Russian FMs Discuss Middle East Peace
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Foreign ministers of Iran and Russia in a telephone conversation emphasized the necessity for more consultations to restore peace to the Middle East region.
During the conversation on Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov stressed the need for more diplomatic contacts to settle the regional crises and bring about peace and stability in the Middle East.
Pointing to the prolonged crisis in Syria, the Iranian minister emphasized that the Syrian people should be given the leading role in any solution to the conflicts in the Arab country.
For his part, Lavrov briefed Zarif on the results of a Friday meeting of the Quartet Principals, held in the Austrian capital of Vienna to discuss the Middle East issues.
The Quartet is a group of four parties, including the UN, the EU, the US and Russia, formed to mediate in the disputes between Palestine and Israel.
According to European Union Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini, participants in the Friday’s meeting in Vienna have discussed ways for opening a political process in Syria to end the lingering crisis there.
Syria has been entangled in civil war since March 2011. The ISIL Takfiri group now controls parts of the Arab country, mostly in the east.
In the past four and half years, more than 240,000 people have died in Syria -overwhelmingly civilians- and around 4 million Syrian people are now refugees in other countries. Around 8 million others have been displaced internally.